M17 low budget

If I were only able to upgrade one of these two:

dual 3870 vs T9400


Which should I choose and why?
This laptop will be used mostly for gaming (mmorpgs).

 

Depends really. What's your current processor?

 

The GPU is much more important than the CPU when it comes to gaming. Basically when it comes to gaming, the importance is as follows:

GPU > RAM > CPU

Go with the dual 3870

 

Such a broad and incorrect statement. It will vary from game to game, but to say one is finitely more important than other is just... wrong.


To properly answer this question, we need to know what the other CPU you would be getting is.

 

can you get the p8400 and dual ati's

show us what you are getting to better help you. and what is your budget.

 

Woops, I forgot to tell you all that I'm only able to upgrade one of the two from basic options =[.

 

So what do you have a total of? maybe a higher screen is good enough.
here are some single 3870 benchmarks
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=352766&page=7

 

@dondadah88

sadly my budget is $1700, oh and I perfer performance over the quality (at a certain point where I don't get gimped in-game by graphics. ie. not being able to see certain spells cause I have to set spell detail to lowest in order to play smoothly)

so unless the bigger screen helps performance, I don't want to have to spend money on it :x (or I could buy the whole thing with minimum options but I heard it's not worth it.)

 

The GPUs and CPU really go hand in hand with the M17, but, just because tracking down a 3870 is so much harder than the multitude of cheap CPUs out there, I'd go with dual 3870's and upgrade the CPU later.

And, while you can scale resolutions, native 1440x900 is where it's at for me (or 1680x1050). More future proofing native gaming and easier on the eyes ( as Vista dpi scaling doesn't translate universally across everything)

But that's just how I roll.....

 

^ +1 with this...

 

The 1920x1200 looks amazing compared to the 1440x900, but it's obviously going to take more horsepower to run at the higher resolution.

That sucks that your price must stay below $1,700. You're pretty hindered as to what you can get.

 

yeah i am glad i got the higher resultion. well that was the only choice for me. i am looking to see what is the best you can get for the price.

with you being on that tight of a budget i would get the msi gt725-075 that is perfect for you.

 

True. For $1,700, you're looking at an extremely low-end M17.

 

oh man i just my best with that system and a budget of 1700 is very hard. but check this out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152102

 

Yeah, that MSI is not bad at all.

I'd like to point out that you are going to pay more for the Alienware badge. If you're looking for bang for the buck, you may want to take a look at some other notebooks.

I wanted to have the bragging rights.

 

Lol maybe he does to. but if you look the msi has
p9500 2.53ghz(the same as a t9400 but low tdp)
ati 4850(much more powerful than a single 3870 and falling by a dual one by alittle)
blueray read(that current config, your still at dvd/rw)
4gb of ram(you at 2gb now)
320gb hdd(your at 160gb)
1920*1200(your at 1440*900)
4.1 speakers(your at 2.1 that doesnt really sound great.)
also msi has a overclock button that brings that cpu to 2.93. you can do that with the alienware unless you flash the bios and have a extreme cpu or use setfsb.

you really cant beat that notebook for the price.

 

i cant pm you yet... make some more posts i may know of a deal for you

 

Actually a 1700$ Alienware compy isn't that bad as you all are trying to make it out to be. 1900 x 1200 upgrade for the screen isn't necessary and is just a preference. The P8400 is a good starting cpu, and can run many of todays latest games. The GPU is great and sits at a much higher benchmark then the 4850 someone else had mentioned. All in all your setup should run WoW (I'm guessing that since you said spell detail) on maxed settings

 

well we dont know what other games he might play. and no a single 3870 cant not beat a 4850. a 3870 cf can but not at his budget

edit: yeah zfactor, he isnt online anymore. i didnt know you needed 20 post to do a PM. maybe you can hook him up.

 

Did someone forget to mention that the ATI is more cpu dependent? Put the money into the CPU if anything, since the single 3870 should be sufficient until you get some money to upgrade it.

 

$1674.00 is what a base line AW M17 1440x900 w/ 3870x2, 2gb, 160gb 7200rpm drive and illuminated KB is priced at atm.

The problem is tax and AW's ridiculous S&H ($80). For me, that would be ~$200 in tax and shipping alone which is a major deal breaker. I don't even know if AW does business in the state of NJ, but they make sure to collect it.

And I'll say it again, but get the 2x 3870's and worry about the CPU later, really. It is the easier, more available upgrade as Intel is having some very nice price cuts coming up on their CPUs and it is easy to install.

 

They do but we have the drop off point in Delaware and row them across the river at night.

 

LOL....

So painful to be right next door to Delaware...

 

get the dual gpus its wayy better for gaming then a cpu upgrade

 

He asked whether he should put his money into a CF 3870 or upgraded cpu. The Dual GPU is the better bet.

 

i know that i saw it. i was just telling him about other noteboooks that may better then that in his price range. and yes dual gpus are better then a cpu upgrade for the game he is playing. i was going out of the box.

 

I think you should update the CPU personally and with new Intel CPU's already on the way you may want to look into them

 

You can always upgrade the processor later cheaply, without much hassle, and with a wide variety of places to buy from.

If you don't upgrade the video cards now, then you're in for a hassle if you ever decide to upgrade. Finding a vendor and getting the correct ones will be a PITA.

I went with the base processor and Crossfired 3870's and haven't had ANY problems on games.

 

http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=51114&action=customize

My friend showed me this discount that is going on.

I'm planning to get this laptop over the m17, but I want to know how close the performance of the geforce 9800M GTS is to the crossfire 3870s.

Also how long would this laptop last me if I do not play any extremely graphic intensive games.

 

That laptop will give you ~ 50-60% the gaming performance of the M17. In addition, it uses the older Santa Rosa chipset and the CPU choices are limited at max to the X9000 (2.8ghz, 6mb cache, 800fsb) and it isn't upgradable to a Quad in the future. There's a reason it's discounted. It's last year's tech.

Spend 300-400 more on a NP5797 or get a M17.

 

50-60% preformance of a fully loaded m7 or with just xfire upgrade?

if I do get the m7 I can only get the xfire upgrade right now, and possibly gather more money to upgrade later on.

 

you can get that much with crossfire. but again I realy recommend you to look at the msi gt725-075 you get almost everything you want.

 

If I raise the specs of the M17 to the following:

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 P8400 2.26GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Ultimate N 5300 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card with MIMO Technology

...and upgrade CPU and RAM later on in life, this would become a good buy? (disreguarding the logo price).

 

its a nice laptop you would be able to play just bout any just about any game out most at high detail some maybe not